CHARLESTON, South Carolina, August 24. WITH no World Championships this summer, the focus of the world’s elite swimmers will go towards one of three regional meets, the already-completed Commonwealth Games, the European Championships, and the Pan Pacific Championships.

Since nearly every major swimming powerhouse focuses on one of these meets, so they make perfect venues for determining who would have been the World Champions in this off-year. Our “Virtual World Championships” will feature the top eight times recorded in one of these three major international finals. Times from prelims and semi-finals will not count, and only two entries per FINA-recognized country will be included. We will make note of B-final times from Pan Pacs that would finish among the top eight here, but those times do not count towards the final eight.

Our list will include all forty pool events contested at the World Championships. Note that the 50s of stroke won’t be contested at Pan Pacs, and the off-Olympic distances (women’s 1500 and men’s 800) were not contested at the Commonwealth Games. Events will be posted in the order in which they are completed.

Those events have not happened at Europeans yet (or at least as of this morning’s post-Pan Pacs update). Not posting until an event is completed at all three meets. There will be another update this afternoon!

Judit

August 23, 2014

So the Youth Olympics does not count? Because Ruta swam 1:05 in 100 m breast, and also Liliana Szilagyi had world class times.

David Rieder

August 23, 2014

I had been thinking about adding those. Certainly Ruta would win 100 breast, yes. Will consider putting them in when I do another version of these for Asian Games.

Author: David Rieder

David Rieder has been a contributor to Swimming World since 2009. A native of Charleston, SC, he currently attends Duke University, where he works as the public address announcer for the varsity swim team.